If you’ve enjoyed playing Microsoft Flight, better get your time in while you can. Microsoft confirmed today that development on the game has ended. The cancellation was part of a shakeup at Microsoft Game Studios Vancouver, a shakeup that included the cancellation of Kinect-based children’s game, and unspecified layoffs. The news came to Kotaku thanks to an anonymous tipster.

Microsoft’s official statement clarifies that Flight will continue to be supported for people who play it:

Microsoft Studios is always evaluating its portfolio of products to determine what is best for gamers, families and the company, and this decision was the result of the natural ebb and flow of our portfolio management. Many factors were considered in the difficult decision to stop development on “Microsoft Flight” and “Project Columbia,” but we feel it will help us better align with our long-term goals and development plans. For “Microsoft Flight,” we will continue to support the community that has embraced the title and the game will still be available to download for free at http://www.microsoft.com/games/flight/.

As Kotaku notes, this is the latest of a series of setbacks for the Vancouver gaming industry. Naturally, Game Front’s thoughts go out to the newly unemployed staff, and wish you the best of luck. Also, thank your lucky stars you live in Canada, where the Internet might suck, but at least you won’t go broke or die after losing your health insurance.

In much the same way that tattoos were once associated exclusively with bikers and criminals, games were once associated exclusively with nerds and social outcasts. Over the course of the last two decades, however, both have become ubiquitous. In 2012, games — and tattoos — are for everyone!

Still, despite the profusion of gaming tattoos, and the many different games that inspire them, there are some gaming tattoos that you will never, ever see.

10. Alpha Protocol

Love it. Hate it. People weren’t sure exactly what to make of Alpha Protocol. When you take a confusing concept and marry it to a generic art style, bad things happen. I love Obsidian, but I don’t see anyone getting a tattoo of super-vanilla protagonist Michael Thorton anytime soon.

9. Leisure Suit Larry

What, you don’t want a picture of a horny, balding midget permanently attached to your body? What are you, some kind of freak?

8. Zoo Tycoon

Isn’t the idea of being a “Zoo Tycoon” essentially ridiculous? Are there really moustache-twirling millionaires out there, raking in the proceeds from their for-profit zoos? Assuming that the core audience for this game is middle-aged women who don’t care for farming or roller coasters (and kids), I think we can rule out the possibility of body art.

7. Brutal: Paws of Fury

This early-nineties fighting game, featuring anthropomorphic animals as combatants, is largely forgotten. Except by furries. But you can’t see their tattoos underneath the fursuits.

6. Superman 64

Widely regarded as the ugliest game of all time, I doubt Superman 64 will inspire any ink. In fact, I think you need superhuman Kryptonian vision to even look at screenshots without feeling nauseous.

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/10-gaming-tattoos-youll-never-see/feed/2Here’s a Great New Look At Microsoft Flight (TRAILER)http://www.gamefront.com/heres-a-great-new-look-at-microsoft-flight-trailer/
http://www.gamefront.com/heres-a-great-new-look-at-microsoft-flight-trailer/#commentsMon, 09 Jan 2012 22:02:20 +0000Phil Owenhttp://www.gamefront.com/?p=146189You cannot win a national championship with this game.

It’s very difficult for me to think of anything right now other than the BCS National Championship, which pits my Alabama Crimson Tide against our hated rivals the LSU Tigers. But this new trailer for Microsoft Flight is a nice distraction from the madness.

It covers a lot of ground, like how the game will be free initially, and that you can play it with a mouse and keyboard. Oooh. Also, it has lots of footage of planes flying around. Here’s the trailer.

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I had been thinking that I would need to buy a new joystick for Microsoft Flight this year, but now it’s a foregone conclusion, because the game will be free.

That’s right, Microsoft is going to let you play Microsoft Flight for free. OK, so you don’t get everything for free. You download it and only get to fly around the big island of Hawaii for free. If you want to go somewhere else or fly in planes not included for free, you’ll need to pay. But that’s OK. A free start is a free start.

Also, you get more free stuff simply by signing into the game with your Games for Windows Live account.

This is an interesting way of releasing the game; seems they’re taking a cue from the Train Simulator games, which have literally thousands of dollars of DLC you can buy. I don’t know if they’ll go to that extreme — Train Simulator DLC costs between $20 and $40, which is a ton — but you can expect that if you really want to explore a lot you’re going to be shelling out a decent amount of cash.

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Microsoft Flight Simulator may be dead, sort of, but Microsoft Flight is looking to renew your interest in simulation-based airplane flying. And you can get a jump start on the action by signing up for the beta right now on Microsoft Connect. Just go here and fill out the “survey,” and you might just be good to go. I don’t know how many people they’re going to let into this thing, so you might just want to hurry it on up there. Don’t dillydally. Go!

]]>http://www.gamefront.com/sign-up-for-the-microsoft-flight-beta-right-now/feed/4Age of Empires Online, Microsoft Flight Announcedhttp://www.gamefront.com/age-of-empires-online-microsoft-flight-announced/
http://www.gamefront.com/age-of-empires-online-microsoft-flight-announced/#commentsTue, 17 Aug 2010 15:15:00 +0000Ron Whitakerhttp://news.filefront.com/?p=52469Microsoft puts a little teeth in their recent announcement that they are pushing PC gaming with the reveal of Age of Empires Online and Microsoft Flight.

Microsoft’s been talking up their “renewed commitment” to PC gaming for a while now. Fable III was the first big PC release they added to their roster, and now they’ve announced two more at Gamescom.

First up is Age of Empires Online, the newest games in the venerable series. Age of Empires Online will be developed by Robot Entertainment, and will drop players into an online world. You’ll get a chance to build your empire from a village in a Greek civilization by completing quests both alone and with friends. Here’s a feature list that Microsoft released:

A persistent online capital city that lives and grows even when you’re offline

Cooperative multiplayer quests, trading and a level-based system that lets you progress at your own pace

Fun, approachable style and storylines

Free-to-play experiences via Games for Windows – LIVE

The second announcement will bring tears of joy to fans of flight simulators. It looked like Microsoft Flight Simulator was destined for the ash heap when longtime developer ACES was closed by Microsoft last year. Instead, it appears that the series will be making a comeback soon with the reveal of Microsoft Flight.

Microsoft says that the new title (which loses the ‘Simulator’ tag), “will bring a new perspective” to the genre. They haven’t dropped a ton of information, but you can check out a video preview over at the official game site.